What's Luck Got to do with Success?

Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck--Why Some Thrive Despite Them All

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0058DTIC0/ref=...

The new question Ten years after the worldwide bestseller Good to Great , Jim Collins returns with another groundbreaking work, this time to ask: Why do some companies thrive in uncertainty, even chaos, and others do not? Based on nine years of research, buttressed by rigorou...

Just as well I hadn't bought this book. I had just read an article by its authors published in the NYT. Of course, such essays are supposed to whet your appetite for more, i.e, buy the book.

I just wrote to a friend the following comment about the article:



I had thought of buying this book but decided to postpone it because there are many other things to get to and books to read. After reading this article, I have decided not to buy the book.

 This book is right on the money for those who believe that in their hands they could determine their fate. The caveats for success is so elegantly woven into the thesis that people who have not spent a lot of time observing, thinking and trying to understand this issue would miss.

 I do not want to go into the details of argument. Instead just ask yourself one simple question: Would businesses everywhere become more effective and successful because they now have the wisdom of Jim Collins to use? I don't think so. None of his earlier books had lifted businesses across the economy to the next level which simple innovations like double entry accounting, long with us had. Even the invention of the joint-stock company, the stock exchange to business and commercial life far exceed the concepts Collins have brought to the market.

 I am almost telling you that this article is not a useful read, so why did I bother to share it with you? Because many people will believe his thesis and most fans and converts would eventually be disappointed. However his framework also help us understand the recent failures of public policy and execution in Singapore.

This is just another of the endless business self-help tomes that has come along. They have a more respectable name for them: Management Science. Don't be deceived.